The Mission That Changed Everything
by FandomGirl97
Summary: When the entire computer network of the White House is hacked, there is only one group of geniuses who can stop it! The Scorpion team is flown to Washington to save the day, but what happens when the mission doesn't go to plan and lives are placed in jeopardy? Is the team capable of such a high-scale mission? A multi-chapter fic, rated T for possible future violence.
1. The Call

Ok, so unlike my other one, One Last Dance (completely unrelated to this one), this is a complete new mission that I came up with, but was inspired by a "The Good Wife" episode, for those of you who watch both you'll get what I mean once you read it. It set after the latest ep of season one, although doesn't go into what happened after that or anything, just assumes that Paige stayed with Scorpion and Drew is now out of the picture. It also after Quintis had their failed date :(. But don't worry I have big plans for them! So this is sort of a teaser chapter, let me know what you guys think about it and whether I should continue!

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><p><strong>WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON D.C.<strong>

It was eight o'clock in the morning when James Webster made the most fatal mistake of his life, a mistake that brought the country to its knees. What seemed so innocent, mundane and harmless was in fact one of the most dangerous threats the country had ever seen. It all started with an email, the irony of the simplicity made James reel long after he realised the severity of what he had done. The email was one from his superior with a link, telling him to open it immediately, and that it was a matter of the utmost importance. Without so much as a second thought he clicked and opened the pop-up, but what awaited him was no mundane form, but a red image spread across his screen with the message "75 million dollars, or every file is released to the public. You have 36 hours." And with that, a timer began counting down, second by second, to zero. His body filled with horror as it spread like the plague across the screens around him, until, one by one, every computer in the White House revealed the same message, and James fell to the floor in shock as the realisation that the American government was being held for ransom hit him like a tidal wave.

**SCORPION HQ**

Meanwhile, completely unaware of the threat, Scorpion was buzzing with activity, and the shouts could be heard from outside the door. Ralph was racing to finish an equation Sylvester had created for him, one that was well beyond the capacity of most mathematic specialists, and the others were all shouting encouragement hoping their bet was right. Paige had refused to bet on her own child, and in following her direction, so had Walter, but Happy, Toby and Sylvester had all made bets on how fast he could do it. Happy had bet 1 minute and thirty seconds or below, Sylvester had bet 2 minutes, but Toby had bet 2 minutes and thirty seconds, unaware of the extent of Ralph's genius.

"C'mon Ralph you gotta do this for me!" Happy shouted as he neared the end of the equation just after one minute had elapsed.  
>"Now, now, Ralph, take your time, you don't want to make any mistakes!" Toby instructed, but it was in vain as Ralph was already done and shouted with glee as he wrote the final answer.<br>"Finished!" He cried, and Paige couldn't help but feel enormous pride at her son's capabilities.  
>"In knowing he was right from the beginning about Ralph, Walter leant in towards Paige and said "told you he was a genius." Paige just smiled in response, looking to Happy as she collected her winnings, a grin spread across her face.<br>"Thank you Toby, aaaand thanks Sly, pleasure doing business with you." Toby only huffed in response, but Sly just shrugged, glad to be rid of the money that made him so nervous. However the celebrations were short lived as Cabe stormed in the door, his face lined with stress and worry.  
>"Everybody in the van now, we have a case to solve that is top priority, and we have a jet waiting for us at a nearby airstrip." The team all looked surprised, what could be so important that they would needed to be flown in a private jet? But if Cabe saw their looks of confusion, he pretended he didn't and continued his instructions. "Ralph, we will drop you off at school on the way, but Paige, is there anyone who can look after him for a night or two? This is a matter of national security." He voice was coloured with stress, Toby could tell that it wasn't a matter to joke about, so he held his tongue and kept his comment to himself.<br>Paige looked frantic, but still managed to respond "Yeah I can organise that, he can stay with the sitter I left him with when we went to Vegas."  
>"Good, I'll explain on the way, now move out!" Cabe's voice was so harsh and demanding that nobody bothered to stop and ask questions.<br>"I'm driving!" Happy yelled, quickly grabbing the keys of Cabe and running out to the van, Walter turned to respond, but decided their case was too urgent to waste time arguing about mediocre things, while Cabe only sighed and sprinted after her.

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><p>It took them a good thirty minutes to drop off Ralph and get to the airstrip, and that was with Happy's driving as she sped through back streets and alleyways. There was a tall general standing at the top of the stairs to the jet waiting impatiently as they all exited their van, his arms folded across his chest.<p>

"This is the country's best response team for a national threat to security? America is doomed. Not only are you late, you're not at all what I had in mind." he grumbled, looking them up and down in disgust. Happy stepped her foot forward and felt her hand curl into a fist, but Toby placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back in an effort to calm her down, whispering something about him not being worth it.  
>"This bunch of geniuses will run circles around any technology-response team we got, so treat them with some respect." Cabe barked, staring him down. The general only huffed and went inside the plane, ignoring Cabe's comment.<br>"Oh he's on our in-flight entertainment? Man, I was at least hoping for some hot flight attendants, this will be a fun four hour flight" Toby said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.  
>"Sylvester, with horror painted across his face as entered the plane, piped up, "Four hours thirty one minutes and counting the minute we take off", clearly not looking forward to having to fly again.<br>Paige stopped Walter just before he entered the plane, whispering, "look I don't think you need me on this, I can stay and handle things back at the office, it sounds pretty serious and I don't think I could be much help," her voice was soft and uncertain, so much that it yanked at something inside Walter, pulling on strings he didn't know he had.  
>Walter turned her face towards his, whispering back, "Paige, you're just as much a part of this team as anybody else, we need to come with us, I need you, that's why you stayed, we're a cyclone remember?" His voice was filled with concern as he stared into Paige's eyes, who smiled and nodded in response, secretly ecstatic that Walter had admitted he needed her.<p> 


	2. Investigation Frustration

So here it is- the second chapter! One thousand apologies for the delay- I was not expecting such a great response and did not know people would be so interested in a second chapter so I thought I would have a while! Anyway, so this one is more of a set up for future chapters, there's not much shippy stuff, but don't worry I have BIG plans for waige and quintis in this story. I should have another chapter up in the next few weeks but I am terrible with deadlines! One more thing, HUGE shoutout to Ashe-Simon who beta-d this chapter for me, she gave me so much helpful feedback!  
>As always, RR- let me know what you guys thought!<p>

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><p>WASHINGTON D.C.: 29 HOURS UNTIL FILE RELEASE<p>

Exactly four hours and twenty minutes after the plane took off from Los Angeles the Scorpion team touched down at a private airplane base in Washington. They were hurried into a black van by Homeland security officers and then rushed to the White House. During the duration of the flight, the team had been briefed on the mission, and every member of the team was anxious about whether they could save the day. Once arriving at White House, Walter led the team in and tried to maintain his composure.  
>He turned to the general and the rest of his team, barking commands. "General, take me to the computer that downloaded the Virus. Toby, you start interviewing the tech staff see if you can pick up anything useful. Happy, you go with him to the tech department and check their systems while he's interviewing. Sly and Paige, you're with me. Everybody get to work." Quickly the team spread in all directions, working as fast as they could. Cabe, Walter, Sylvester and Paige followed the General silently, Paige taking the sight around her, still trying to comprehend the fact that she was in the White House trying to save the American Government.<br>"Move quickly, we are on a time limit here geniuses" the General snapped, his voice filled with frustration and anger. Once they reached the room, Walter saw the laptop and the man he assumed was Mr Webster curled up in a corner, clearly in shock.  
>"Paige, go talk to Mr Webster, see if you can get anything from him." Walter always spoke to Paige in a softer tone than he did the others, however they always pretended not to notice, not wanting to get in the way of Walter slowly developing a stronger EQ as he became closer to the former waitress. Smiling and nodding in response, Paige turned to the man in shock and gently tried to get anything out of him. Quickly Walter moved to the computer, trying everything he could to find the location of the Virus on the system to remove it, but with each failed attempt, he became more and more frustrated. Finally he slammed his fist onto the desk, a move not unnoticed by Paige. Quickly she moved to him and pulled him aside to talk to him while Sylvester took over and tried other methods.<br>"Walter I understand that you're frustrated, but if there's anyone who can fix this, it's you. You have to keep trying okay?" Her eyes were filled with concern as she tried to soothe him while Walter paced back and forth with his head down.  
>"I'm trying Paige, but I'm running out of options" huffed Walter, still walking back and forth. Paige had seen him like this before, when he didn't know what to do during the LAX incident, when he shut down in front of her.<br>"You thought you were out of options on the day I first met you after the drive failed, and yet you still saved everyone. You can do that now, now calm down and breathe deeply." Paige reached out and held his arm as she spoke, and Walter stopped his pacing before turning to her and exhaling deeply. "Good." Paige smiled as Walter held her gaze and relaxed.  
>"Okay, if I can't find the location of the virus on the system to remove it, I can track the source of it. Once I've done that, I can stop the timer from the computer which created the virus and remove it from the system. We have to be quick though as with this timer, we will most likely be cutting it fine." Walter whispered, Paige could practically see the million wheels in head turning as he tried to figure this all out. He turned to start pacing again, however Paige stopped him, maintaining her grip on his arm. Walter tried to deny to himself that it wasn't sending shivers through him, and focused his attention on the mission. "While I'm trying to find the source, we need Toby up here creating a profile of the culprit." Quickly he turned to Cabe, saying, "Get Toby up here now." Cabe only turned and barked orders at officers standing by before walking off to find Toby.<p>

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><p>"So did you learn anything?" Happy asked Toby once he had finished interviewing the last tech person.<br>"What kind of question is that? I always learn something when interviewing people, judging by the body language and glances between those two over there, there are in a physical relationship, and that woman over there is experiencing troubles with her husband…" Toby said, eager to flaunt his profiling skills to Happy.  
>Quickly, she interrupted him before he dragged it on for far too long, "let me rephrase my question, did you learn anything related to the case that can actually help us?!" She stared at him impatiently, silently tapping her feet.<br>"Oh, not really, none of the guys gave me anything useful, but I have some ideas on the type of person to pull this off, we need to go talk to Walter and Cabe, but did you find anything, as you say, related to the case? Toby smirked as tried his best to impersonate her voice when he was quoting her.  
>"As far as I could tell nothing has been tampered with however I didn't get time to check the whole system. But I'm pretty sure your average tech guy could tell if they were so they should send one of the people you interviewed in to check the rest." She huffed, frustrated at the fact she had found nothing in her search.<br>Toby grinned his devil smile, "But Happy, nobody does it the way you do." He winked at her again, but Happy didn't have time to retort before Cabe stormed up to them with his face expressionless.  
>"There you two are! Enough chat, Walter needs you now! Let's go!" He shouted, practically pushing them into the elevator.<br>While waiting for the elevator to reach the right floor Happy quickly moved to Toby's side and whispered in his ear, "For the record, I know I'm far better than your average wireless repairman, I don't need you to tell me that."  
>Toby just turned to look directly into her eyes, whispering, "I know, but I'm here to remind you how amazing your mechanical skills are just in case you forget." Happy only huffed and turned away in response, denying to herself how thankful she was that he was there to always remind her.<p>

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><p>As soon as Toby and Happy entered the room with Cabe following behind, Walter jumped from the desk and began instructing Toby without so much as a hello. "Okay Toby, give us a profile on who did this and stat."<br>Quickly Toby walked up to him, whispering in Walter's ear, "I could do it now, but as this is most likely an inside job and we don't know who we can trust, so it would be best to do it somewhere else." Walter quickly agreed, and then requested copies of the files of all employees both currently employed and those fired within the last six months.  
>"General, I'm taking this laptop with me, it's currently trying to trace the source of the virus and I cannot leave it here. Cabe will notify you if there are any developments in the case." The General only nodded in response, not bothering to even utter a word of reply.<br>"Team, lets pack up and head to the van, we will go sort the rest of this out at a hotel." Quickly Walter packed up his stuff and led the team out to the van with Paige by his side, the others following silently. Just before the team entered the van, Walter quickly turned and whispered so softly that Paige almost thought that she hadn't heard it at all, "I promise Paige, I won't let you down." But it wasn't until Paige had sat down in van that she fully realized what Walter had said, and she couldn't help but look him in eye and smile.


	3. The Culprit

Hey Guys! Okay I know it has been like months I am so sorry but anyway here is the next chapter! So I have made some changes, I have decided to alter it and make it so that the story is set following the season finale, which means I have made a few changes to the previous chapters so I would recommend going back and reading them.. Anyway here it is, this one is setting things up for the sort of climax of the story, but I hope you guys enjoy! R&R, honestly, all those reviews you guys left is what motivated me to continue so if you like this chapter, keep them coming! I'll try to be more punctual with the following chapter but no promises! Anyway, here it is!

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><p>WASHINGTON D.C.: 20 HOURS UNTIL FILES RELEASED<p>

Once back at the hotel, Toby began sifting through the stack of employee files given to them by the General, sorting them into piles of likelihood to commit the act. While he madly worked, occasionally yelling out random phrases of, "too low paid", "not enough training", and "pfft not dedicated enough", Happy stood and watched, secretly admiring how he worked, while she couldn't admit it to herself. Her mind began drifting again, thinking of what could happen if she gave him another chance, let him start over, but then it switched the gut-wrenching feeling she felt when she was sitting there for hours at that restaurant waiting for him. Her gut churned.

"No." She whispered silently to herself, "I won't let anyone hurt me like that again." And yet, in some way, she already had, because every time he looked at her with concern written through those eyes of his she was back at that restaurant table, waiting for him again. Quickly she snapped back into reality, and focused on helping Toby.

Sylvester was furiously working with the infected laptop, trying to trace the source but with no success, when suddenly Toby bursted out, "Aww yes, give me a crown and call me Elizabeth because I deserve to be queen after solving this one." He grinned at Happy while madly flopping a file every where, the pride practically bursting out of his chest.

Quickly Walter, and Paige jumped up from the chairs on which they were sitting to view the file Toby had picked. Walter grabbed it from him and began reading the details aloud.

"Hazel Moore, 26, graduated from Stanford at the top of her class, originally worked for the CIA electronically cataloging evidence before becoming Electronic Security Administrator at the White House." He pauses and turns to Paige, "so basically she is most likely a genius who previously worked testing the firewall and impenetrability of the security walls that protect the American Government's files against hackers and viruses."

"Oh perfect, someone who is as smart as you guys who has now created the very thing she was employed to stop. Anything else we should know?" Paige huffs, overwhelmed by the severity of the situation.

"It doesn't say why she was fired, which, in the case of sensitive government files, is never a good sign" Toby pipes up, still proud that he worked out who it was.

"So what do we do, call Cabe and have him bring her in?" Paige asks, unsure of how to proceed.

Walter begins pacing, his mind racing, and shakes his head, "No, if we do that it's highly likely she won't stop the virus and we will not be able to stop it without killing it from the source. We need to go in undercover. Sly, what is she currently doing for employment after being fired?" Quickly his head turns to Sylvester, impatiently waiting for a response.

Sylvester madly began searching for her on his laptop, "Got her, she's creating a start-up company looking for people previously employed by the CIA, FBI or who worked in the White House for", he pauses and raises his hands to make quotation marks with his fingers, "international private security and investigation for high-level employers around the world, and she is currently looking for applicants."

Walter quickly stood up again, "Why on earth would she be creating that kind of start up company? Well, regardless, we need two to go undercover into her house, place a drive into her computer, and then Sylvester and I will stop the virus while outside in the van. Happy and Toby, you two will be the undercover pair. You can pretend that you were CIA agents previously working in Afghanistan tracking militant group movements before being fired for blowing the mission." Fearing that Walter would pass out if the kept pacing at that speed, Paige quickly walked towards him and stopped him by gently holding his arm and pulling him to sit down on the chair next to Sylvester. Walter silently followed, already starting to feel dizzy from pacing.

Meanwhile, Toby glanced at Happy and winked while she feigned disgust and frustration.

"Why is it I am always stuck with you" she muttered under her breath, so soft that Toby only just heard her.

"Because we're like a dynamic duo, we kickass together." Toby stated proudly before winking again while Happy sighed and turned her back on him, facing Walter.

"Ignoring that, we will do it, but we need earpieces and," she paused before looking herself up and down while wearing a leather jacket over a grey tank, black denim jeans and lace-up boots,"actual outfits that make us look like CIA agents going for an interview."

Paige smiled brightly, "oh don't worry about that, I'm sure we can go find you something" she stopped while looking her up and down, "I think you would look good in a grey pant suit". Happy's face went pale while her gut churned, her mind racing with the thought of working undercover with Toby again. Toby only smiled, hoping that this was his chance, his chance to prove to her why she could give him a second chance, because out of every stupid mistake is his life, nothing hurt more than what he did to Happy.


End file.
